Mayor Colin Read responds to, stands by conversation with council member

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Updated: 11:30 PM EST Dec 17, 2017

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WEBVTT CAPTURE A PRIVATE CONVERSATIONBETWEEN PLATTSBURGH'S MAYOR AND ONE OF THE CITY'S COUNCIL MEMBERS.... IS CIRCULATINGSOCIAL MEDIA. SOMEONE --USING THE USERNAMECHARLIE WENTWORTH --POSTED THEVIDEO FRIDAY. IN IT, MAYORCOLIN READ ANDWARD TWOCOUNCILMANMIKE KELLY CANBE HEARDDISCUSSING AVARIETY OFISSUESPRETAINING TO THE CITY'SFINANCIAL TROUBLES. DURING THECONVERSATION -- READ SAYS HEBELIEVES THETOWN OF PLATTSBURGH HAS BEENHOLDING OUT SIGNIFICANT SUMS OF MONEY FROM THE CITY OVER THE LAST DECADE. WHILE THERE ARE STILL MANYQUESTIONS TOASK, BOTH READAND CURRENT TOWN OF PLATTSBURGH SUPERVISORMICHAEL CASHMAN WEIGHED INTODAY ON THE VIDEO'SPOSTING.WHAT IS KIND OF UNUSUAL IN THIS IS THAT SOMEBODYWOULD SOMEHOW RECEIVE AND THEN TRANSMIT THAT PRIVATECONVERSATION, AND TOTALLY ANONYMOUSLY.TO ME THATBREAKS SOME SORT OF ETHIC AND WE DON'TUNDERSTANDWHAT THEIRMOTIVE IS.OBVIOUSLY,THEY'RE TRYINGTO HARM THE CITYIVE ALWAYSTAKEN THE POSITION THAT LET'S DIAL IT BACK AND IN GOOD FAITH LETS SAY OK LISTEN SOMETHING OCCURREDHERE. LETS RE-GATHER AT THE TABLE. LETS ACKNOWLEDGE A CERTAIN TENSION AND LET'S START OVEROUR TEAM IS CONTINUING TO GATHER MORE INFORMATION AND ASKINGQUESTIONS OFTHE PARTIES INVOLVED. THE VIDEO HAS BEEN VIEWED ALMOST 25-HUNDRED TIMES ALREADY.YOU CAN FIND ALINK TO THE FULLVIDEO ON OURWEBSITE MYNBC5 DOT COM.

A video appearing to capture a private conversation between Plattsburgh's mayor and one of the city's council members is circulating on social media, raising questions about the content of that conversation and the video itself.

"Obviously they are trying to harm the city, and why they would do that and harm the city taxpayers is really beyond me," Mayor Colin Read said Sunday.

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A user by the name of Charlie Wentworth posted a 22-minute video to YouTube Friday of a seemingly post-city council meeting conversation between Read and Ward 2 Councilor Mike Kelly.

The video has been viewed more than 1,700 times as of Sunday evening.

The conversation begins with a discussion about the financial strain city employee sick leave puts on the cash-strapped city's finances.

"The average sick leave that I was looking at over the last 10 years, the buyouts are somewhere around $60-to-$120,000 a year," Read can be heard saying to Kelly roughly a minute into the posted recording.

The conversation between Read and Kelly remains largely focused on the city of Plattsburgh's financial troubles and the factors that they speculate led the city to its current financial state.

Read has spoken firmly throughout his time in office about making hard choices to save the city money.

He is heard telling Kelly, "We think that the town has been holding back a sum that could be into the seven figures that the city really deserves, like could be as high as $10 million that they've tricked us out of. We don't know if it's recoverable or not, but we're obviously upset."

Read reiterated Sunday that he stood by his comments made during what was to be a private conversation.

"This was an honest reflection of the facts as we knew it," he said. "We kind of would hope that everybody would understand that we have to have confidential discussions and try to understand these things among our council and legal specialist. Just this is not the way we'd like to see things done in the city."

Read goes on to claim that the Cashman lied about the amount of funding the town would receive from a partnership both the city and town are involved in, the Saranac Power Partnerships.

The video captures Read recounting the phone conversation to Kelly saying, "I said, 'Mike, you've got to feel our pain. When you cut us back from $93,000 to $7,000, we're having to make another three layoffs. We need to be sustainable.'"

Cashman responded to those claims Sunday, stressing that he has not done anything inappropriate when it comes to shared funds under the Saranac Power Agreement.

Cashman added that throughout the duration of that agreement there have been multiple mayors, supervisors and council members working in the region.

"First and foremost, I disagree with some of the things that he (Read) is saying, as far as me lying and things like that" Cashman said. "We need to work on some things. We need to have some conversations."

Cashman said he hopes to move forward with those conversations with as little finger pointing as possible. He suggested a mediator could be helpful in conversations moving forward.

"You don't want to necessarily lawyer up," Cashman said. "Even though some of the remarks are hurtful. I think a lot of people understand that politics become this full-body-contact sport. You have to spring on the Teflon. Did I like hearing them? No. Do I agree with them? No, but I'm willing to move forward."

He said collaboration will be crucial moving forward and that he believes there was a misunderstanding somewhere down the line.

The YouTube video is the only video that has been uploaded by the user, Charlie Wentworth.

City officials regularly post the livestream of city council meetings to its own YouTube page.

A copy of the livestream of Thursday's city council meeting was on the channel Sunday evening, ending with an adjournment.

"What is kind of unusual in this is that somebody would somehow receive and then transmit that private conversation and totally anonymously," he said. "To me that kind of breaks some sort of ethic. We don't understand what their motivation is."